Raw potatoes and other vegetables have in the past been cut into pieces for cooking or freezing in a variety of ways using various apparatus. One method of cutting potatoes for making a french fried potato product strip involves a fixed blade cutter against which a potato is rotated to cut it into a plurality of helical strips. This mechanism includes a cutting plate on which is mounted a pivot pin for engaging one end of a potato. The other end of the potato is engaged by a toothed drive disk which is mounted opposite the plate on a crank driven shaft. A set of slitting knives protrude from the surface of the cutting plate and a cutting knife is mounted to the cutting plate adjacent the pivot pin. The blade of this knife extends radially from the pivot pin in a plane parallel to the surface of the cutting plate. These knives cut the potato into a plurality of helical strips as it is rotated against the cutting plate.
Although this device produces helically-cut potato strips, it suffers from several problems. First, since the potato is rotated against the cutting plate, a center core of the potato is produced and progressively crushed against the plate resulting in wastage and degradation of the product. The toothed drive disk further results in waste since the potato cannot be cut into helical strips from end to end without interference between the teeth of the drive disk and the cutting knives. The speed of operation of this device is further limited by the time required to load a potato into axial alignment with the pivot pin and drive disk and by the limitations on rotational speed of the potato.